It’s Back-to-School Time!
by Yasir Naqvi MP, Ottawa Centre
I hope you had a wonderful summer, filled with time with family and friends enjoying the many festivals, parks, the Canal and swimming at Dow’s Lake in Ottawa Centre! Summer is always a special time as your Member of Parliament, giving me the opportunity to meet with and listen to constituents across the community. As I return to Parliament this autumn (yes Back-to-School for MPs), I look forward to continuing those conversations as we chart a successful path for our community and all Canadians in these uncertain times.
Helping families through the back-to-school season
As our children and youth return to school, families are adjusting to a new rhythm, one that for many has included the added cost of back-to-school supplies. Families can look to the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), a tax-free monthly payment supporting the cost of raising children under 18, alongside the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB), whose next quarterly payment lands on October 5th. By increasing the payment amounts for the CCB by up to $135 per child aged 6 to 17 and for the CGEB by 25 percent for eligible individuals this summer, the federal government has continued in its commitment to help families manage rising costs and to ensure more money remains in your pocket.
Keeping children and youth safe online
As the kids return to classrooms, the conversations around the impact of social media on their lives and learning become even more relevant. Today, social media is ubiquitous for young people: their phones, their group chats, the platforms where their social life now happens. This raises real questions about children’s safety online and their use of social media. One in four youth aged 12 to 17 has reported experiencing cyberbullying. Police services across Canada reported 16,905 incidents of online child sexual exploitation in 2024 alone, a rise of 347 percent since 2014. New technologies, including artificial intelligence, are changing how harmful content is created, amplified, and experienced online, adding a further layer of urgency to these numbers.
Many countries, like Australia, have enacted laws to protect kids. Similarly, last June our federal government introduced Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, to strengthen public oversight of major online services, in order to protect children and youth. The bill comes in two parts, the Digital Safety Act and the Digital Safety Commission of Canada Act, which together would build a framework to hold digital services accountable for the risks they create.
The Digital Safety Act would establish new safety requirements for social media and AI chatbot services, organised around three duties:
- A Duty to Protect Children would apply to all regulated services, including a minimum age requirement of 16 for social media accounts, with an exemption available only where a platform proves it has implemented sufficient safeguards.
- A Duty to Act Responsibly would require platforms to address seven categories of harmful content, from cyberbullying to content that incites violence or foments hatred, and to give users real tools to block and flag abuse. AI chatbots would face a version of this duty tailored to their own risks, including clear protocols for moments when a user expresses an intention to harm themselves or others.
- A Duty to Make Certain Content Inaccessible would require the rapid removal of the most harmful material, including content that sexually victimizes a child and non-consensual intimate content such as deepfakes.
To enforce this, the Act would create an independent Digital Safety Commission of Canada, auditing platforms for compliance, issuing penalties where they fall short, and requiring every regulated service to publish a public plan showing how it is meeting its obligations.
I want to hear from you
As a parent of two children myself, I understand how personal and complex questions about our kids’ online safety can be, such that there are no easy answers. That is exactly why I want to hear from parents and young people. As the Safe Social Media Act is considered by Parliament, please share with me your thoughts and suggestions as to how best we can protect children from online harms. You can share your views online at https://surl.li/lcdbjh, scan the QR code, complete the questionnaire in the mailer sent to your home, or by emailing me directly at [email protected]. Your point of view will help me as your Member of Parliament to advocate for a practical and strong legislation.
